Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 11:35 am
Rachel Maddow said on Monday night that the “squad” Donald Trump had working on his Ukraine extortion scheme was basically a “clown car” full of criminals.
On her program, Maddow ticked off the names of the five people Trump had apparently enlisted for his Ukraine extortion operation. The one thing all of the men have in common? They’re either in jail, under investigation or fighting extradition.
There is Rudy Giuliani, of course, who is now under investigation by the same U.S. attorney’s office that he used to be in charge of. There are Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two of Giuliani’s associates who were recently arrested on campaign finance violations. There is Paul Manafort, the president’s former campaign chairman who is now in federal prison. And then there is Dmytro Firtash, a Russia-linked criminal who, as Maddow pointed out on Monday, is connected to a major bribery scheme.
“This appears to have been, like, [Trump’s] squad as he was trying to pull off this operation for which he has now been caught in which Ukraine would help him versus the Democrats and Joe Biden specifically for 2020,” Maddow said. “Who wouldn’t want to be on this team?”
Video:
Rachel Maddow reports on the “squad” of criminals Trump had working on his Ukraine extortion scheme. #ctl #p2 #maddow pic.twitter.com/KIp2R1P5LU
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) October 15, 2019
Maddow said:
The president is in the middle of impeachment proceedings for having tried to enlist a foreign power to help him against the Democrats in 2020. Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, who is under investigation for a number of different strands of this scheme related to what the president is now being impeached for with the help of a clown car full of upstanding citizens. Rudy Giuliani was working on this scheme for the president to try to get help from this foreign country in the next election with the help of Lev and Igor, who are now indicted for having allegedly funneled illegal Russian campaign donations to Russian politicians, including the pro-Trump super PAC. Giuliani was also reportedly working with the president’s campaign chairman, who is now a federal prisoner, to help put together this scheme for which the president is being impeached. Giuliani has also been using material that he obtained from Dmytro Firtash, a Kremlin-connected billionaire who is currently fighting extradition to the United States where he is wanted on felony charges related to a gigantic bribery scheme. Federal prosecutors call Mr. Firtash an upper echelon associate of Russian organized crime. And so that looks to be kind of the president’s team here. This appears to have been, like, his squad as he was trying to pull off this operation for which he has now been caught in which Ukraine would help him versus the Democrats and Joe Biden specifically for 2020. So that’s the president’s side of the impeachment proceeding right now. Obviously, this is going great for him. Who wouldn’t want to be on this team? If you’re having a hard time keeping track of the president’s squad for this operation, it is sort of easy to remember if you just consider them by their circumstances. The guys on the bottom are out on bail. The guy in the middle on the top is fighting extradition. The guy on the top in the right is already in prison, and the guy on the top in the left is under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s office he used to run, currently having his banking records read through by federal prosecutors. That’s who the president was working with on this thing.
Trump is running the U.S government like he ran his shady businesses
When Donald Trump promised to run the United States government like he ran his businesses, he wasn’t joking. In fact, that’s one promise he has managed to keep.
Everything he has done in his life has come at the expense of somebody else in order to enrich himself and his businesses – whether it’s stiffing contractors and employees or screwing over students at a phony university.
All along, he’s surrounded himself with folks just as shady and corrupt as he is.
His time in the White House has proved to be no different; it’s just that the scam is on a much larger scale with higher stakes – and it affects, you know, the entire planet.
As the House impeachment inquiry continues to gather more evidence and snag a growing number of key witnesses, Trump’s clown car full of criminals appears to be running out of gas.
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